Dos Passos and the Sound of New York City

Intriguing new article in The Guardian about the “sound art” of Manhattan Transfer and parallels between Dos Passos and composer Edgar Varèse.

“The writer John Dos Passos and composer Edgard Varèse would intuit a different, deeper truth about the city they lived and worked in during the 1920s – that its identity is inseparable from the sounds it makes…Both men would create work that excavated the soul of their adopted city, scooping out its underlying vibrations, rhythms and chatter.”

Events

The 2018 John Dos Passos Society Conference will be June 20-22 at the Geographical Society of Lisbon. Please send an English-language abstract of 250-300 words and a brief CV to both Aaron Shaheen and Mário Avelar at aaron-shaheen@utc.edu and mario.carlos.avelar@gmail.com respectively by February 9, 2018. Graduate students must submit a full paper by February 28th in order to be considered for supplemental travel funds. Make note of any A/V requests in your abstract. The conference will be exclusively in English.

Artwork

Quotes

“About style—I think that reading people in order to get ‘style’ from them is rather soft-headed. Your style is like the color of your hair or the cut of your pants—half accident, half act of God—to take thought to change or improve it results usually in rank affectation.”